New York, Las Vegas, Paris, London: with every new headline and announcement of tragic and often violent incidents, there is a temptation for those within communities to close ranks and shield themselves from an increasingly commonplace reality.

There is an important theme that runs through three recent high-profile crises: the Volkswagen “defeat device” scandal, the mishandling of the Grenfell Tower fire and the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse case. This theme was the perception of an utter lack of care and indifference by senior people towards those for whom they had responsibility. It has caused huge and long-term damage to the organisations and people involved.

Everyone knows that life today is in some ways more challenging than ever before. Social media makes windows into the private lives of unwary, unprepared individuals. Political and physical turmoil abroad renders travel increasingly risky. Scams are more complex and more convincing. Data is more vulnerable. The younger generation is both more susceptible and less protected.

The GDPR provides better and stronger safeguards for personal data. It will protect all EU citizens and their data. GDPR was implemented in April 2016 and will be enforced in all EU Member States by the end of May 2018. Fines for failure to comply can be as high as €20 million or 4% of global turnover.

In Britain we have been here before, one way or another. During the IRA bombing campaign in mainland Britain, lives were lost and millions of pounds of damage were caused in London and elsewhere. Today, such threats are more varied and more intrusive. Some attacks can be categorised as terrorism while others are the products of violent criminality whose causes can be as much psychological as ideological or political – hard to understand and harder still to combat.

During the British intervention in Libya in 2011, some 58 meetings of the National Security Council were convened back in Whitehall. In that forum there were significant disagreements between ministers and military officers about our strategy for Libya – or, in the view of the Chief of the Defence Staff, the complete lack of any government strategy as a context in which to conduct military operations. At one stage the Prime Minister opined: “You do the fighting and I’ll do the talking.” But that did not address the question of who would do the thinking.